Major U.S. banks are kicking off earnings season
Stock futures are lower Friday, as Wall Street looks to close out a shaky week and major U.S. banks kick off earnings season. Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) futures are substantially lower, while futures on the S&P 500 Index (SPX) are also in the red. The tech-heavy Nasdaq is on track for a winning week, while the other two benchmarks are pacing for their second-straight weekly losses.
Continue reading for more on today's market, including:
5 Things You Need to Know Today
- The Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE) saw more than 1.3 million call contracts and 844,090 put contracts exchanged Thursday. The single-session equity put/call ratio fell to 0.63, while the 21-day moving average remained at 0.71.
- JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) is 3.5% lower before the bell, after the bank beat first-quarter earnings and revenue expectations, but noted net interest income could miss analysts' estimates for 2024. The bank stock is roughly 15% higher for the year, and sports a 52.1% year-over-year lead.
- The Wall Street Journal reported federal regulators are currently probing Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS). According to sources familiar with the matter, the investment bank is being investigated for its handling of wealth management clients "who are at risk of laundering money." MS is down 0.9% ahead of the open, looking to add to a 6.9% year-to-date deficit.
- Also per the Wall Street Journal, Chinese officials earlier this year ordered its largest telecom carriers to cut out American chip makers. In response, the shares of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) are 2.8% lower in premarket trading, on track to take a chunk out of their 15.7% year-to-date lead.
- The Fed's Beige Book and retail sales data are coming next week.
Overseas Investors Digest Economic Data in Asia
Asian stocks were mostly lower to end the week, as investors parse through regional economic data. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 2.2%, while China’s Shanghai Composite gave back 0.5%, as the latter’s exports fell by a much larger-than-expected amount in March. South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.9%, after the unemployment rate jumped to 2.8% and the central bank kept interest rates steady. Japan’s Nikkei added 0.2%, as the yen weakened against the dollar.
Over in Europe, bourses are moving higher. Even though Britain’s economic output rose by only 0.1% for February, on par with estimates, London’s FTSE 100 is up 1.5% at last check. The French CAC 40 and German DAX are up 0.7% and 0.8%, respectively, at last check.